Sam Rohrer: Pastors Should Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

Pastors have the job of telling the truth to their congregations, which is why they should be able to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, says Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors Network.

"A pastor's role is to communicate the truth," Rohrer told J.D. Hayworth and Morgan Thompson on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV Tuesday.

"The pastor's role is to take biblical principles and teach it to the people so that they know how to go out and understand the issues of the day, how to interact and affect the culture," he explained.

More than 1,600 pastors across the country participated in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," in which they publicly endorsed candidates running in the midterm elections, which is a violation of their churches' tax exempt status under the IRS.

"If our people understand that our founders understood as William Penn did in Pennsylvania [that] you have to have people in office who are people of integrity and character — [it's] the pastor's role to be able to define what that is and that does mean telling which candidates meet those requirements and which candidates do not meet those requirements," Rohrer contends.

The pastor "deals with truth and truth is obviously the underpinnings of law and freedom."

According to Rohrer, "there's a moral underpinning under every issue . . . . You can't get away from it."

"Our founders believed very clearly that the moral underpinnings of biblical truth — the Ten Commandments — were what undergirds our law," he explained.

"If we separate that and say we're not going to talk about those things because they're controversial, you'll get people in office who won't even vote right on tax issues let alone matters of marriage," he added.

Pastors have the job of telling the truth to their congregations, which is why they should be able to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, says Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors Network.